1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in an internal combustion engine. More particularly each cylinder is divided into two chambers by the piston where the upper chamber is used for combustion and the lower chamber is used for air pumping and initial compression.
When the internal combustion engine is used as a two-stroke engine the engine size can be reduced by up to 50% of an existing four-stroke engine.
When the internal combustion engine is used as a four-stroke engine the engine will be similarly sized to an existing four-stroke engine except the chamber under the piston will work as a supercharger and improve efficiency.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Numerous patents have been issued on piston driven engines. The majority of these engines use pistons that move up and down in a cylinder. The piston is connected to a crank shaft and the piston pivots on a wrist pin connected to the piston connecting rod. The side-to-side motion of the piston rod eliminates the potential for a sealing surface under the piston. The design of an engine with piston rods that remain in a fixed orientation to the piston allow for a seal to exist under the piston and this area can be used as a pump to increase the volume of air being pushed into the top of the piston to turbo-charge the amount of air within the cylinder without use of a conventional turbo charger driven from the exhaust or the output shaft of the engine. Several products and patents have been issued that use piston rods that exist in fixed orientation to the piston. Exemplary examples of patents covering these products are disclosed herein.
There is a large amount of energy that is lost due to aerodynamic drag from the piston pushing air under a piston as it moves. In existing engines that use only the top of the piston energy is wasted from the aerodynamic drag. In a dual chamber cylinder there is no aerodynamic drag.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,610 issued Jun. 15, 1971 to Kilburn I. Porter discloses a radial internal combustion engine with pairs of diametrically opposed cylinders. While the piston arms exist in a fixed orientation to the pistons the volume under the pistons is not used to pump air into the intake stroke of the engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,945 issued Jul. 17, 1984 to Glen F. Chatfield discloses a cam controlled reciprocating piston device. One or opposing two or four pistons operates from special cams or yokes that replace the crankpins and connecting rods. While this patent discloses piston arms that are fixed to the pistons there also is no disclosure for using the area under each piston to move air into the intake stroke of the piston.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,599 issued Nov. 6, 1984 to Egidio Allais discloses a free-piston engine with operatively independent cam. The pistons work on opposite sides of the cam to balance the motion of the pistons. Followers on the cam move the pistons in the cylinders. The reciprocating motion of the pistons and connecting rod moves a ferric mass through a coil to generate electricity as opposed to rotary motion. The movement of air under the pistons also is not used to push air into the cylinders in the intake stroke.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,976,467 issued Dec. 20, 2005 and published application US2001/0017122 published Aug. 30, 2001, both to Luciano Fantuzzi disclose an internal combustion engine with reciprocating action. The pistons are fixed to the piston rods, and the piston rods move on a guiding cam that is connected to the output shaft. These inventions use the piston was as a guide for reciprocating action and thereby produce pressure on the cylinder walls. The dual chamber design uses piston wall and a guided tube in the bottom of the lower chamber as guides for the piston in the reciprocating action. Neither of these two documents discloses using the lower chamber as a supercharger.
What is needed is an engine where the underside of the piston is used to compress the air and work as a supercharger for the upper chamber cylinder. This application discloses and provides that solution.